{{Short description|Canadian philosopher}} {{Infobox philosopher |region = Western philosophy |era = Contemporary philosophy |image = |caption = |name = Thomas Hurka |birth_date = August 10, 1952 |birth_place =Toronto, Ontario |death_date = |death_place = |school_tradition = Analytic philosophy |main_interests = Moral philosophy |notable_ideas = Perfectionism |signature = }}
'''Thomas Michael Hurka''' (born August 10, 1952) is a Canadian philosopher who holds the Jackman Distinguished Chair in Philosophical Studies at the University of Toronto. He taught previously, from 1978 to 2002, at the University of Calgary.<ref name=uot>{{cite web|title=Thomas Hurka|url=https://www.philosophy.utoronto.ca/directory/thomas-hurka/|work=Philosophy|publisher=University of Toronto|access-date=December 16, 2011}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Hurka |first=Thomas Michael |date=April 30, 2018 |title=curriculum vitae |url=https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/Hurka-cv.pdf}}</ref> He has published on metaethics, normative theory, political philosophy, and applied ethics.
==Education and career==
Hurka was born in Toronto, Ontario, on August 10, 1952, to Anthony Emmanuel Hurka (a manager) and Edith Dita ''née'' Heller (a social worker).<ref>{{Cite web |title=HURKA , Thomas Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/canadianwhoswho0044unse/page/619/mode/1up?q=hurka |access-date=2026-04-16 |website=Canadian Who's Who}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Contemporary_Authors/d3etIUH-FyMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Anthony+Emmanuel+Hurka&dq=Anthony+Emmanuel+Hurka&printsec=frontcover |title=Contemporary Authors |date=2003 |publisher=Gale Research International, Limited |isbn=978-0-7876-5196-1 |pages=151 |language=en}}</ref> Hurka's parents were both from Czechoslovakia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hurka |first=Thomas |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Perfectionism/-dZzR8tCQ2AC |title=Perfectionism |date= |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-19-802418-7 |page=vii |pages= |language=en |chapter=Preface |doi=10.1093/0195101162.002.0001}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hurka |first=Thomas |title=The morality of nationalism |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-510392-2 |editor-last=McMahan |editor-first=Jeff |series=Oxford University Press on-line |location=New York |pages=141 |chapter=The Justification of National Partiality |editor-last2=McKim |editor-first2=Robert}}</ref> His mother arrived in London as a Jewish refugee from there in 1939.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Allemang |first=John |date=2011-01-21 |title=Philosopher Thomas Hurka's Top 10 of happiness |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/philosopher-thomas-hurkas-top-10-of-happiness/article562929/ |access-date=2026-04-16 |work=The Globe and Mail |language=en-CA}}</ref>
After graduating from the University of Toronto Schools, he received a BA (honors) at the University of Toronto in 1975 and then a BPhil from Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1977.<ref name="uot" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://utschools.ca/alumni/notable-alumni.aspx |title=UTS |website=utschools.ca |access-date=30 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407103023/http://utschools.ca/alumni/notable-alumni.aspx |archive-date=7 April 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> His 1980 DPhil from Oxford University was obtained with a thesis on “Perfectionist Ethics” that was supervised by R. M. Hare.<ref name=":2" />
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2001.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/uprofessors/complete/hurkat.htm|title=Awards & Funding – Division of the Vice-President & Provost}}</ref>
==Philosophical work==
Hurka has published works on a number of topics, including the topics of goodness,<ref>{{citation|last=Rønnow-Rasmussen|first=Toni|title=Personal Value|year=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-960378-7|page=96}}</ref> virtue,<ref>{{citation|last=Battaly|first=Heather|title=Virtue and Vice, Moral and Epistemic|year=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-5193-4|page=75}}</ref> and ethics.<ref>{{citation|last=Govier|first=Trudy|title=A Practical Study of Argument|year=2009|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-495-60340-5|page=354}}</ref> His philosophy focuses on the well-rounded life. He cited that goods, which come in four basic categories - pleasure, knowledge, achievement, and virtue - matter more the less of them you have.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Quality of Life: Aristotle Revised|last=Kraut|first=Richard|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2018|isbn=9780198828846|location=New York|pages=158}}</ref> In his theory, he stressed that it is more appropriate to seek a balanced variety of them all instead of devoting oneself to one kind.<ref name=":0" /> His conception of virtue is different from the view that an agent ought to maximize their own good, which requires being virtuous. Instead, Hurka stressed that "agents ought to maximize the good of all, which requires conventionally right action, and as a side effect can maximize their own good."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Virtue, Vice, and Value|last=Hurka|first=Thomas|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=0195137167|location=New York|pages=56}}</ref>
Hurka has also studied the ethics of fighting global warming.<ref>{{citation|last=Coward|first=Harold G.|title=Ethics & climate change: the greenhouse effect|page=[https://archive.org/details/ethicsclimatecha0000unse/page/7 7]|year=1993|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press|isbn=978-0-88920-233-7|authorlink=Harold Coward|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/ethicsclimatecha0000unse/page/7}}</ref> He maintained that if we reject the notion that individuals should only pursue their own self-interest, then we can assign ethical standing to a wider range of beings besides ourselves.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Ethical Choices and Global Greenhouse Warming|last=Dotto|first=Lydia|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0889202344|location=Ontario|pages=8}}</ref> This is significant in addressing global warming because it morally pushes towards strategies of avoiding instead of adapting to climate change.<ref name=":1" />
==Bibliography== * ''Principles: Short Essays on Ethics'' (1993) * ''Perfectionism'' (1993) * ''Virtue, Vice, and Value'' (2001) * ''Drawing Morals: Essays in Ethical Theory'' (2011) * ''The Best Things in Life: A Guide to What Really Matters'' (2011) * ''British Ethical Theorists from Sidgwick to Ewing'' (2014)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://thomashurka.com Thomas Hurka homepage]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurka, Thomas}} Category:Living people Category:Academic staff of the University of Toronto Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:20th-century Canadian philosophers Category:21st-century Canadian philosophers Category:Canadian ethicists Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:1952 births Category:University of Toronto Schools alumni Category:University of Toronto alumni